Is support for real light sources on the way?

[alfredo_20]

Yesterday I noticed a change on Trainz RoadMap.

The Real light source support card has been moved from future ideas to In development.
Is anything in development?
Thanks in advance!

 

[PortLineParker]

I saw this too, I would guess so if N3V are saying it's under development. A massive step forward for Trainz and one that I can't wait to see implemented.

Cheers,

PLP

 

[davesnow]

I saw this too, I would guess so if N3V are saying it's under development. A massive step forward for Trainz and one that I can't wait to see implemented.

Cheers,

PLP

I second that!!

 

[JAGG]

Anyway, if, then for golden platinum diamond subscribers only...

 

[foristellsteam]

Is anything in development?

One can only hope

 

[pware]

Is anything in development?

The TLR Passenger Support has moved into beta testing.

 

[ajrf]

I hope so. Although I'm scared of how much GPU will eat.

 

[wreeder]

They posted some Alpha testing screenshots of the lighting system.

Trainz Plus

info.trainzsimulator.com

 

[AFdude06]

I got the roadmap email today, and boy, when I saw point lighting I said sign me up! The jump forward Trainz would see visually if even just the more critical light sources were changed (auxiliary locomotive lights, signals, street lamps, station lighting), the difference would be HUGE. Signals is number one for me, and having real flashing ditchlights and stuff would be amazing.

 

[UP5521]

Nice, That means more realistic steam engine head and marker lights, I'm in.

 

[alfredo_20]

I didn't know that a newsletter of Road Map is available.
Also, I think that a critical feature before forward+ rendering is the implementation of Directx12.

 

[UP5521]

Dx12 would help with game performance, especially since PBR textures are used,also Ray tracing, new skybox and fog i'd like to see implimented as well, features that have yet to be under development, we will see, right now, I would focus on eliminating bugs that has perplexed both developers and fans of trains and railroads alike.

 

[wreeder]

I didn't know that a newsletter of Road Map is available.
Also, I think that a critical feature before forward+ rendering is the implementation of Directx12.

DX12 is required to be used to be an official X Box game. So it is safe to assume that they finally managed to get it to work. The truth is DX11 supports point lights already but the issue has always been the game code itself which dates back to DX7. To add really state of the art features requires a complete rewrite of the section of the code to support the new feature.

 

[wreeder]

Dx12 would help with game performance, especially since PBR textures are used,also Ray tracing, new skybox and fog i'd like to see implimented as well, features that have yet to be under development, we will see, right now, I would focus on eliminating bugs that has perplexed both developers and fans of trains and railroads alike.

I think it is still an open debate as to whether DX12 will bring a performance improvement. Certainly, turning on ray tracing is the quickest way to wreck your FPS in most games.

 

[frogpipe]

While Im pleased to see lighting being spoken of (its waaay overdue IMHO) I am concerned that it may rely on ray tracing (I'm still on an otherwise perfectly capable GTX card) and I note that it seems the latest developments are being KEPT behind the subscription wall.

Years later I still can not BUY a version of 22 that supports high resolution terrain.

I expect this lighting to go the same way.

 

[Forester1]

I am concerned that it may rely on ray tracing

Dunno, but they seem to be referring it as Forward Rendering+, and I notice at the Trainz Roadmap Portal they still refer to Ray Tracing separately. So, I am curious if they are working on some way to render light from light sources "forward" without actually going all the way to ray tracing? But I don't know what the differences would be.

 

[Therock]

ray tracing is not necessary for multiple point lighting sources... this is 20+ year old tech that *way* predates raytracing...

 

[frogpipe]

I know, that's why I said way overdue, but about a year ago I raised the question in a live stream and they answered basically saying "maybe after ray tracing" implying it would be reliant on that.

Admittedly that was long ago and off the cuff, so it makes me wonder is all.

 

[railroader86001]

I am really looking forward to the new lighting system on the locomotive headlight flares and feel it will definitely add to the realism. If we get a new skybox as well, Trainz will definitely be the best looking sim available.

 

[wreeder]

Dunno, but they seem to be referring it as Forward Rendering+, and I notice at the Trainz Roadmap Portal they still refer to Ray Tracing separately. So, I am curious if they are working on some way to render light from light sources "forward" without actually going all the way to ray tracing? But I don't know what the differences would be.

It is Forward+ Rendering which gives a clue. In classic 3D animation where ray tracing is used to get a photo-realistic image, the rays from each light source is traced from the light to each object it hits as it bounces around the scene and a few rays (thousands depending on the resolution of the camera's final image) will make it to the camera and be rendered as the scene in minutes or even hours per frame. As you can imagine, tens of millions of rays are calculated in this process.

Real time ray tracing does the opposite, starting at the camera and only tracing the rays that come from the object surfaces directly to the camera. Those rays are followed back to the light source(s). Thus reducing the number of calculations from tens of millions to a few hundred thousand.

The older form of raytracing was considered reverse raytracing since the process is backwards from light to camera. I've never seen real time ray tracing referred to by forward ray tracing but it does describe the process.